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TOP 10 DREAM JOBS FOR KIDS
1) Doctor/Nurse
2) Vet
3) Footballer
4) Teacher
5) Actor/Movie Star
6) Writer
7) Dancer/Ballerina
8) Pilot
9) Pop Star
10) Astronaut
TOP 10 DREAM JOBS FOR ADULTS
1) Writer
2) Teacher
3) Landscape Gardener
4) Paramedic
5) Photographer
6) Police Officer
7) Physiotherapist
8) Movie Director
9) Restaurant Owner
10) Musician
The survey of 2,000 employees by Creative & Cultural Skills (CCSkills) the Sector Skills Council for the creative and cultural industries also shows that men are less likely to lose sight of their childhood dreams as they grow up - just 28 per cent said they changed their minds about their career compared to 44 per cent of women.
Men are also more likely to try and pursue their childhood dream jobs - 13 per cent compared to just 5 per cent of women.
In contrast, women are more likely to pursue their dream jobs in adulthood - an overwhelming 67 per cent would change their career if financial help was available to help them compared to 57 per cent of men.
Women are more likely to place greater importance on career fulfilment than finances - 75 per cent say they'd rather be happy at work than have a large pay packet compared to 67 per cent of men.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 08:17 AM
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh found happiness in old age was not associated with lifelong intelligence in a group of healthy men and women living in Scotland.
"If you are 80 and healthy, then your satisfaction with how your life has turned out bears no relation to how you scored on an IQ test recently or 70 years ago," says researcher Ian Deary.
Researchers compared satisfaction in old age with intelligence in a group of 550 healthy men and women with no signs of dementia who were born in Scotland in 1921.
Each of the participants had their mental abilities tested at age 11 and again at about age 80 when they also filled out a questionnaire on life satisfaction.
After researchers converted the test scores to IQs and adjusted them for age, they found satisfaction with life or happiness in old age was not related to intelligence across the person's life span.
The results of the study appear in the July 16 issue of the British Medical Journal.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 09:11 AM
Israeli researcher Dr. Yoram Levanon believes that listening to someone for only 30 seconds can tell you everything you need to know.
Using a unique new tool for analyzing the human voice he says, he's able to outline the speaker's basic personality, likes and dislikes, and can even detect whether or not they have a learning disability or developmental disorder. In time, he says, he will even be able to tell if the speaker might be suffering from a disease - before any symptoms have appeared.
Potentially, this means that a telemarketer could someday get a quick and accurate idea as to what kind of a person they are speaking with on the phone, and thus, the best way to sell them a given product.
He's now in the process of creating three start-up companies to develop what he is calling the 'Emotional Marketing Method.'
Levanon and Lossos thus developed a way in which to map 30 seconds of speech on an electronic graph, and quickly identify which of his basic personality categories they fall into. The potential for the sales field and telemarketers is unlimited.
Tomer Chen, former Microsoft marketing manager for small and medium-sized business customers conducted an experiment for Levanon, and found that using his approach, he could double sales, compared with control group that did not use the 'eemotional marketing' technique.
Voice the gateway to the soul?
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 08:36 AM
Scene took place on a BA flight between Johannesburg and London.
A white woman, about 50 years old, was seated next to a coloured man. Obviously disturbed by this, she called the air Hostess.
"Madam, what is the matter," the hostess asked. You obviously do not see it then?" she responded. "You placed me next to a black man. I do not agree to sit next to someone from such a repugnant group. Give me an alternative seat."
"Be calm please," the hostess replied. "Almost all the places on this flight are taken. I will go to see if another place is available."
The Hostess went away and then came back a few minutes later.
Madam, just as I thought, there are no other available seats in the economy class. I spoke to the captain and he informed me that there is also no seat in the business class. All the same, we still have one place in the first class."
Before the woman could say anything, the hostess continued: "It is not usual for our company to permit someone from the economy class to sit in the first class. However, given the circumstances, the captain feels that it would be scandalous to make someone sit next to someone so disgusting."
She turned to the coloured guy, and said, "Therefore, Sir, if you would like to, please collect your hand luggage, a seat awaits you in first class." At that moment, the other passengers who were shocked by what they had just witnessed stood up and applauded.
Great story.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 11:16 AM
Over the past few months, I have detected a rather cold reception on the phone when I became "overfriendly!"
Try this out today.
Ring any business/ organisation.
When the customer service person answers the phone, ask them how they are - yes - "How are you?"
In the majority of cases, I have experienced silence or he/ she may repeat their opening welcome or a quick "lets get to business" reply.
As it is my belief that customers leave businesses and friends don't, I believe its time to get a little more personal on the phone, and throw the can out the window, ie canned presentation.
A courteous "fine and how are you yourself" would do just nicely - maybe I am old fashioned!
On another note, I was involved in a major event abroad recently. After the event, we say down with the promoter and highlighted several major issues our audience encountered with the service. The meeting lasted for over an hour.
Though acknowledging that all our comments were legimate, his only other contribution was to find out what date would we like to book for next years events.
Unbelievable but true!
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 09:51 AM
In a groundbreaking experiment at Massachusetts General Hospital, a sample of patients battling depression have agreed in recent weeks to be wired up for 24-hour-a-day, mobile monitoring of their palm sweat, heart rate, voice dynamics, movements, and location.
The study aims to show that such measures can reliably reflect a patient's state of mind as treatment progresses, researchers say.
Researchers are developing an easy-to-wear system that continuously gathers masses of information, then quickly crunches and transmits it, providing objective data to help with diagnoses and provide early warning when crisis nears.
''The Holy Grail of what we're trying to do is to develop an automated system that can just look at the physiology and be able to predict if [patients] are depressed and if they're going to become more depressed," said Michael Sung, a media lab researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is working on the study.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:41 AM
If only I won the lotto ........I would be miserable?
Just over one per cent of Australians live in households with a net worth of $3 million or more, but many of these multimillionaires aren't satisfied with their financial position, says Dr Clive Hamilton from the Australia Institute.
Only five per cent of Australia's millionaires regard themselves as prosperous. Half of them say their financial situation is only reasonably comfortable, and a few of them even say that they are poor or just getting by.
This research was based on the so-called HILDA study, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey – a very large survey funded by the Federal Government and conducted by the University of Melbourne. And it asks people a huge range of questions about their financial situation and their attitudes to their financial situation.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 11:11 AM
A good night's sleep triggers changes in the brain that help to improve memory, according to a new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center featured in June issue of Neuroscience.
In this new study, twelve healthy, college-aged individuals were taught a sequence of skilled finger movements, similar to playing a piano scale. After a 12- hour period of either wake or sleep, respectively, the subjects were tested on their ability to recall these finger movements while an MRI measured the activity of their brain.
According to researcher Walker, the MRI results showed that while some areas of the brain were distinctly more active after a period of sleep, other areas were noticeably less active. But together, the changes brought about by sleep resulted in improvements in the subjects' motor skill performance.
"The MRI scans are showing us that brain regions shift dramatically during sleep," says Walker. "When you're asleep, it seems as though you are shifting memory to more efficient storage regions within the brain. Consequently, when you awaken, memory tasks can be performed both more quickly and accurately and with less stress and anxiety."
The end result is that procedural skills - for example, learning to talk, to coordinate limbs, musicianship, sports, even using and interpreting sensory and perceptual information from the surrounding world -- become more automatic and require the use of fewer conscious brain regions to be accomplished.
This new research may explain why children and teenagers need more sleep than adults and, in particular, why infants sleep almost round the clock.
"Sleep appears to play a key role in human development," says Walker. "At 12 months of age, infants are in an almost constant state of motor skill learning, coordinating their limbs and digits in a variety of routines. They have an immense amount of new material to consolidate and, consequently, this intensive period of learning may demand a great deal of sleep."
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:24 AM
Levels of job satisfaction among women in the UK have plummeted over the past 15 years, according to a new survey by the Economic and Social Research Council, which also found that discontent with the workplace among men had remained relatively steady.
Some experts said the results were proof that while the glass ceiling had bent it had not broken and that employers had still not managed to create a suitable worklife for millions of mothers.
Professor Michael Rose, who analysed data on the happiness of 25,000 female workers , found job dissatisfaction was most prominent among women under 40 and those who work part-time.
He said: "For some time now there has been something called the 'despondency theory' - that people are becoming more fed up with a lower level of job satisfaction.
"If you analyse all employees together, this shows up a little bit. But when you split them up into males and females you see that men's happiness at work has remained stable, while women's has declined significantly."
Female employment has risen from 59 per cent in 1984 to 70 per cent in 2002.
The reason for rising levels of discontent among women, according to Cary Cooper, a professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University, is that the workplace has failed to adapt to their particular skills.
"The glass ceiling has bent, it certainly hasn't broken," said Professor Cooper. "Many employers won't allow women who have children to split their week and work partly at home when the technology is available.
"It is also the case that men remain the boss in the majority of offices and men are reluctant to praise when people have done a good job and that is what women want to hear."
Professor Rose added that there is no evidence that women were "generally unhappy". He said: "You can be dissatisfied with a job without being an unhappy person."
Unhappy at work, happy at home a likely scenario - I dont think so.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 09:40 AM
Inspirational Day.
Probably the highlight was when they brought on the very beautiful Birhan Woldu on stage. Birhan was minutes from death when rescued by Aid workers in 1985. The Aid money saved hers and many other Ethiopian's lives.
Each one of us could give back someone else their life if we so choose.
Message is clear - make poverty history.
Do your part - we can all make a difference.
http://www.live8live.com
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 08:39 PM